Be Enlightened Bebang, Abandon No Gale

Bebang(4) - The Dazzle

MAX

''Logical reasoning and rational thinking creates a perfect fusion. Everyone has the right to become a part of The Intellect; The responsibility of the Modus is to sustain the reorganized system. Anyone, who is not part of The Intellect, must be terminated.''

Professor Milan conducts ECO-12. Last week, he mentioned that we will have to attend a trek as our assessment qualification in economics. The trek is located at the Burnham City, where thousands of Oddities live. Jack said that the idea of meeting the Oddities is quite risky. He said that the uprising intellectual divide had provoked the group of Oddities planning and agreeing in secret to commit a subversive act against the Modus. He called them The Literati. He said he met a woman before whom he found out that who was a member of The Literati. The woman was half-oddity and half-eventide, as he knows because he was the one who conducted the logistics tribulation, he didn't know how it happened and he didn't care to elaborate the details but he warned me to be careful. Oddities are those who are unfortunate to make it through the logistics tribulation, unlike the Eventides who are able to overstep the tribulation, who were forcefully rifted to share a different location away from the Oddities. Intellectual capacity divide has become dominant after the old Modus has reorganized.

''Scared of treks? Get a grip, it's just a tour. Move.'' Wind keeps playing with Bernardina's hair. I can see her face, and I can feel she could sense fear. No one had ever felt brave with the treks.

''The Modus had never allowed teenagers to join the treks. How did you get in?'' Navy keepers are supervising the locomotives. The locomotives are gigantic in size, almost doubled the human height. Millions of lepidoptera seizes inside my belly. It's amazing how fear could easily weaken us.

Bernardina smiled, ''Parang minsan napapagaya tayo sa mga nababasa nating mga novels at napapanood nating mga t.v series mula sa ibang bansa. Nagagawa natin in real life, naiimpluwensiyahan yung way of thinking natin unconciously. Kahit mga decision making methods natin. Kita mo 'tong babaeng may hawak ng storyline natin. Ang genre ng kwento natin eh dapat humor. Bigla ba namang nag-shift sa sci-fiction. Eh naka-encounter lang ng-''

Minsan bilib din ako dito kay Bernardina, ang bilis niyang mag-mood shift, topic-shift, effective na tact panglito. Minsan naman may pagka-hindimoalamkunganongmeronsautak. Apart sa pagiging tactfull, swear, ang hirap niyang basahin. You may see her as an indecisive theorist pero there is something deep down in her way of thinking. Kung hindi ka keen observer, hindi mo madedecode agad yung gusto niyang i-emphasize.

''Pero yun nga, hindi naman natin kultura talaga. I mean we can't fight off any kind influence. Parang airborne virus. Once it is already spread, there's no other way to stop it from spreading. Partida, unconciously hindi aware ang tao na niyayakap niya na yung influence. Magugulat nalang siya. Parang cancer lang. Hindi mo mararamdaman yung stage 1 to stage 2. Kapag may masakit na, tsaka ka lang mag-rereact na may sakit ka pala.''

Her thoughts are obviously from 20th century. Year 4000 is the present. Hindi ko maintindihan kung bakit tinatackle parin niya yung 20th issue. Madami nang pagbabago.

I tried to shift the topic, ''I get it. What if mga sarili nating t.v series ang isapuso natin diba? Economic nationalism ganun.''

Natawa siya.

''Are you even serious? Impakta ka! Ni singkong duling wala kang mamanahin! Magbabayad ang hampas-lupang yon! Akin lang ang bakanteng-lote na ito!! Kumain ka ng dogfood dahil di mo sinunod ang utos ni senyorita!!! Wala kang kwenta sa labas ka matulog!! Inay itay wag mo kaming iiwan!! I-like mo ang status ko kung hindi aabangan kita sa gate!!! Ilibre mo ako ng chatea kasi vinote kita as muse!! Wala kang kwentang anak!! Wala kang kwentang tao!! Walang kwenta!!''

Bernardina continued, ''Let's overlook at the positive and hope for the best. At least we have hope na mahusay pumili ang sangkatauhan sa nation natin.''

''Hope for the best? Really,''

''O, ano na namang issue mo doon?''

''Ano ka ba? Di mo ba alam na yung sinasabi mong hope, ay PAG-ASA sa tagalog. Duh. Idiot. Can you please ring any bells please?!''

''Ano naman kung PAG-ASA ang tagalog ng hope? FYI, I so very know, from the moment na hindi ka pa isinilang alam ko na.  Well, ngayon mo lang ba nalaman? Kawawa ka naman. But no, hindi ikakaunlad ng Pilipinas yan. Hindi tayo magiging first world country. Duuuhidiotnerve upon you, dre,'

''Gaga. PAG-ASA! It means you are relying on something that is only an idea, which means it is not concrete. In short, umaasa ka sa pag-asang sinasabi mo. How dare your idiotness too!''

I smiled at her idea.

''Everyone I need your attention. Today we are going to focus on the importance of a unit training strategy and how to incorporate C2 training simulations into the training to improve your survival individual performance. How simulations are incorporated into a unit's training strategy is determined by the commander and his staff. Generally, through experience, it is recommended that simulation exercises be conducted annually at the corps level, semi annually at the division level, and quarterly at the brigade and battalion level. However, external factors such as different wartime and operational missions, organizational composition, and unit training requirements will alter the recommended frequency of exercises.''

CIC Edward is the assigned commander to lead us with the treks. Hindi ko alam na ganito pala kahigpit sa security ang mga assigned keepers. Naalala ko yung sinabi ni pareng Jack. The combat aligned themselves in the open field. Every combatant has a battle rifles, may nakita din akong air-launched weapons ang astig lang. Para kaming sasabak sa gyera na to be honest, bibisita lang naman talaga kami sa mga abandoned refugees.

''Max!'' Bernardina shouted. Medyo malayo yung distance niya since nasa kabilang linya siya ng mga combatant. Pinaghiwalay by gender, sinort-out according sa workplace. Now we are all divided by 4. Male to female each workplace. S.S (Social SCI) and T.S (Techno SCI)

''Hindi ako makalabas! Last resort! Ang tanging pag-asa ko nalang eh mag-teleport! I think I can if I let my every atom vibrate from this frequency to another freq! Kailangan ko ng calculations mo! Uutusan nila tayong pumatay Max!''

Panic. I forgot to tell her not to ruin herself out of panic. Hindi na rin ako nagtaka nung walang nag-react nung sumigaw siya. Baka iniisip na may mental unstability. It seems that the universe understands a whole lot of scrap in the world now.

CIC Edwards strolls approaching me, holds a silver gray medallion over in his hand as he walks. It takes me a few seconds to recognize the medallion - the pendant, four arrows pointed to a small circle inside a big circle, the monogram of The Oddities.

''Max,'' he says. ''From this, I entrust you the last gift I have from Ciara.'' The medallion's coldness, it gives a depressing effect on my skin, it felt until down on my spine, like a lost memory has been found.

It hasn't hit me yet; that CIC Edwards was with me all through this years, the man who lifted me up from a burning destructive nightmare, when our house is being burned by the fire to the ground, the one who had believed I could stand on my feet, the one who helped me survive when I couldn't, and now giving me the medallion, the last gift - the last memory I have with my mother. I knew from that moment I owe this man standing ahead of me a lot. A lot.

''I trust you Max, from the moment I saw you trying to survive yourself in a deadly fire. I trust you.''

He trusts me. And I owe him my life. This man, whom I thought had never had a heart, whom I thought who would never turn back to someone dying on an emergency requiring to save yourself for a greater good, whom I thought who would, on no occasion, give a slight spark of empathy towards anyone, there is something about him, when you see him, something about that will make you respect him.

''Why did you save me?''

Commander-in-chief Edwards fell silent, lost his stern composure, a slyly smile disappeared on his face.

''If someone is on fire, and you can't even forgive yourself seeing them weep, their plea of your help, your scruples haunting you to do what it thinks is right, because you are also a human, you are going to do the same thing, Max.''